Regan Smith is back on top in the backstroke, just in time for the Olympic Games

INDIANAPOLIS — Not all world records are created equal. It may seem like they’re all uniformly great in a straightforward way, but not all of them are. At least not for Regan Smith.

When Smith broke the women’s 100-meter backstroke world record at the 2019 world championships five years ago, it felt… kind of easy. There was so much swimming then.

“When you’re 17, you’re a teenager, and I hadn’t really done much with my name yet,” Smith said. “I had no pressure on me. I was always the youngest. No one really expected much from me, and so it was so easy to walk into races feeling fearless and not really caring what the outcome was.

“I really shocked myself at that meet in 2019 because I didn’t believe I was capable of doing that.”

Here at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Smith broke the world record again in the event, swimming the 100 back in a scorching 57.13 seconds on Tuesday night, punching her ticket to the Paris Games and breaking the previous world record held by Australian Kaylee McKeown of 57.33 defeated.

As she looked at the video board and saw her time, Smith balled her fingers into a fist, punched the water and shouted, “F– yes!”

🗣️WOOORRRLLLDDD RECORRRDDD

Regan Smith. 57.13. Believe it. #SwimTrials24

pic.twitter.com/Czt7GmCZgq

— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) June 19, 2024

“It’s going to be a long time,” Smith said afterward. “It’s about time.”

Now 22, Smith feels like she’s lived so many swimming lives. She has been the teenage phenomenon. She was the young woman who felt like she had completely lost her self-confidence and didn’t feel like herself. And lately, she’s been the star athlete rejuvenated by a new coach and a different environment, ready to take on history again.

“I’m in a very different place in my life,” Smith said. ‘Of course I’m a lot older. The pressure is very different. The expectations are very different for myself and for other people around me.

“I’ve learned a lot over the last five years and I’ve had a lot of low points, especially in backstroke. But I think it taught me a lot, and it definitely helped me strengthen things mentally. Because I think I’ve always had it physically. I haven’t had it mentally for a long time.”

Indeed, Smith has always had incredible talent. She played multiple sports growing up, but started making big strides when she decided to go all-in on swimming at age 13. Four years later, at the 2019 world championship meet – only her third major international competition – she set world records in both the 100-metre backstroke (as a lead-in in the medley relay) and the 200-metre backstroke (in her gold medal-winning swim).

But after that breakthrough she had a hard time. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help her training or mentally. She was not looking forward to the US trials in 2021 and now says her confidence at the time was at its lowest level ever. She made the Tokyo team but failed to qualify in the 200m backstroke, which was a shock.

“I just didn’t want to be there,” Smith said. “I wasn’t excited. I had no confidence in myself. I wanted other people to do it because I thought they would be better off than me – and that’s so sad to think about now. …

“I think what I really struggle with is separating emotion from logic, and I think the best of the best are able to remain logical in the toughest of times, and that’s what I’ve always struggled with. Because when logic goes out and emotion comes in, you suffocate, and I did that over and over again because I let my emotions take over.

After Tokyo, Smith went to Stanford, where it took her a while to realize the fit was wrong. She left the Cardinal after a year, turned pro and joined coach Bob Bowman’s elite group in Tempe, Arizona. Smith credits Bowman, who famously coached Michael Phelps throughout his career, and her teammates first at Arizona State (and now Texas) for their help. regain her self-confidence. She also works with a sports psychologist.

She knows how well she swims in training, and she now logically knows that if she swims events like she does every day, she will perform at an elite level. She now knows without a doubt that she can do this.

“A lot of years went by after 2019 where I thought I would never do that again,” Smith said.

Bowman agreed that her mental approach has always been “by far the biggest challenge” for Smith. He sees how hard she trains – he regularly gives her a lot of work – and how strong she is. Her technique was already good. It was all about getting her head right and watching her times drop.

“She consistently trains at a different level day in and day out,” Bowman said. “It can be very frustrating to go to a meeting and they just don’t add up. Once she started…focusing on the important things, like the process – and not on what the outcome might be, she got a lot better.

She is the top seed heading into the women’s 200m butterfly final on Thursday evening, and she is also a favorite in the women’s 200m backstroke this week.

But it is that world record in the 100 back that will earn her a big rose at the Games. She’s ready for that – and for the opportunity to lower that record even further.

“I’d like to,” Smith said. “I think 56 is definitely a possibility. Whether it’s me or one of my competitors, who knows? But I’m not going to sell myself short. Absolutely not. That was a great race (in Indianapolis), but it wasn’t a perfect race.

“I know there are things I can clean up and do better, and I’m going to work towards that.”

(Photo of Regan Smith at Tuesday’s 100-meter backstroke medal ceremony: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)